Développement et optimisation de revêtements minces nanostructurés pour capteurs solaires thermiques et modules photovoltaïques

Renewable and available in abundance, incident solar radiation is an ideal candidate for energy production. The development of nanostructured coatings for the improve- ment of technologies that convert solar energy into heat and electricity opens interesting new perspectives for the future. This PhD thesis presents an approach based on iterative cycles for the development and optimisation of such materials with a view to industrial scale production. Two ap- plications are investigated : chromium-free black selective coatings for durable thermal solar absorbers and orange coloured interferential filters for photovoltaic collectors with a view to their architectural integration. The first part of this work describes in detail the different production stages of the black selective coating from the preparation of the solutions to the manufacturing of a prototype. According to our study, the optimal coating for stainless steel tubes with a length of two meters is composed of a superposition of thin layers of Cu-Co-Mn-O//Cu- Co-Mn-Si-O//Si-O applied through sol-gel technology and annealed by an innovative induction heating process for which a patent request has been filed. The nanocomposite coating has the advantage of combining the optical properties αsol = 0.93 and εth = 0.12 with durability properties that make it eligible for possible industrialisation. The second part of the thesis describes the production of orange coloured interferen- tial filters applied on photovoltaic collectors through magnetron sputtering, a process for which another patent application has been filed. The obtained samples meet the expectations of the market with regard to such a product with a relative performance reduction of 10 to 15% in comparison with an identical collector without a filter. An in- dustrial prototype of 1190 mm x 412 mm has been produced and is being characterised at the moment these lines are written.